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Anakin’s TEKKEN Academy halfway point check-in with Lethal Shooter
How NBA shooting coach Lethal Shooter is progressing on his road to taking on TEKKEN challengers.
It’s been around a month since Chris Matthews, better known as basketball coach Lethal Shooter, began his journey to regaining his fighting game skills. As one of the many students taking part in Red Bull’s Class in Session with TEKKEN master Hoa ‘Anakin’ Luu, Lethal has been practicing the basics of fighting games after a lengthy absence from gaming.
As one of the most in-demand basketball coaches in the world, Lethal has trained dozens of NBA and WNBA players in the tiny details that separate amateurs from pros. Now, thrown back into fighting games for the first time since the original Mortal Kombat games, he’s having to adjust to being on the other side of the classroom. And after half of Anakin’s six-week crash course in TEKKEN 7, he’s starting to find his feet again.
“I enjoy playing it because it's challenging, you can't just be hitting the controller like back in the day with fighting games,” Lethal tells us, mid-way through his latest practice session. “You have to be really tactful and strategic, and actually try to learn the combos which I've been doing a better job at. And it really makes you think, especially when you're fighting all these different characters.”
11 min
Learning the basics
Pro Tekken player Anakin shares his in-depth knowledge of the game and explains how to master it.
Having to get used to a new game from his old love has been a struggle, especially after some time away, though his experience with Mortal Kombat has helped him when choosing a new main.
“Heihachi, yeah, I like him,” Lethal says. “He's pretty easy for me to play with, I like him a lot. When I learned the combos, the one thing I did notice about him as I was playing through, this is a whole different game, but I like how he has the thunder, like Raiden. And he has the ability of kicking you, bringing that force out, hitting you with the lightning, so I like that a lot. I kind of related to this character a little bit, because of the stuff he was doing.”
With at least one cornerstone to get him started, Anakin’s weekly lessons have started to teach him the basics. But even with one of the best TEKKEN players in the world giving out the tips, Lethal has found himself falling into the same traps he sees his own pupils stumbling on.
“You know, sometimes I might be talking to a client and they say 'Yeah, yeah, I got it I got it' and then they go out there and do the same exact thing you told them not to do,” Lethal says. “And I kind of caught myself doing that, he was breaking down things to us very simply, and I thought 'sure, I got this' and then I went out there and got my ass kicked. So, I went back in the video and really listened to what he was saying, and he explained the first key is to learn how to block and move out of the way of certain things, and don't mash on the controller. And I was like 'Oh shit, that's what I was doing all along.' I really tried to take the time to fight, instead of just smacking on the controller.”
After catching his own bad habits, Lethal has since picked up on the fundamentals of TEKKEN that Anakin has laid out over the first half of his course: the importance of movement, blocking and planning out when it’s safe to counterattack. However, there are still a few things Lethal feels like he needs before he can deliver on his goal of being able to take on the challenge of any of his fans who want to play a round or two.
“With the super hard combos, I'm having a hard time remembering, so I go back to those YouTube videos and try to watch them sometimes as I play,” Lethal says, referring to Anakin’s latest lesson on advanced techniques. “So, I'll pause the game and when he tells me certain stuff I'll try it and be amazed. But right, now where my brain is with the game, I'm not fast enough and haven't played to the ability where as soon as something happens I can have all these combinations in my head, and I can go to the kick, or the super upper, certain types of moves. I don't quite have that ability yet, but I can see it coming.”
8 min
Advanced strategies
Anakin discusses some of the advanced techniques that will help you conquer any opponent.
What’s stopping Lethal from getting to this next level of play – which is one of the key skills to becoming a fighting game pro – is the state of mind to finish out a match.
“I get to a point sometimes, when the person is almost down to red and I just try mashing a little bit when I need to just like, continue,” he admits. “If I had somebody telling me, this is what you should be thinking about that might help.”
This mastery of the mind is something he helps his basketball clients understand when they’re trying to improve their shots; you need to get out of your own head.
“Of course it's not 17,000 people on my neck while I'm playing TEKKEN, but the same anxiety I feel when I have to hit that big shot, or I have to make a power play, I think it's the same anxiety in video games once it comes to that crunch time,” he says. “You have to know and trust in what you learn and study it and be patient and don't allow the stress to make you hit the wrong things. Because if you're just mashing on the buttons, you might jump while the guy's going into his combo and he kills you, but if you're calm you can remember your combo and hit him first. It's like hitting that game-winning shot, if this is a shot that you worked on every single day, you're not going to second guess yourself.”
The mental fortitude to win is something that needs to be developed over years of competitive play, and difficult to teach in the same format as the basics. But alongside Anakin’s videos explaining the mechanics of TEKKEN he also runs Twitch sessions where students can drop in to explain how he achieves this state of mind.
“I can't use what I use for basketball, because that's just breathing. I want to know what their thought process is, I want to be in their mind,” Lethal says. “Basketballs' totally different, because you have times where you're running up and down the court where you can control certain things to calm yourself down. But in TEKKEN there's no downtime, it's mano y mano, you have split seconds to calm yourself down, so I think once I learn that more I think I'll get 10 times better and it'll help me trust more in what I'm learning.”
Though he hasn’t quite mastered the combos or the classic temptation to push buttons when he shouldn’t, Lethal is happy with his progress so far in Anakin’s lessons. His aim before he began was to be able to go toe-to-toe with any of his fans, who regularly challenge him to games other than his beloved NBA 2K. But is he ready to take them on yet?
“I feel like if there's somebody that didn't play for a while, like myself, I wouldn't be afraid to go into a match with them,” Lethal says. “Would I have the ability for someone who has been playing a while? I would say no, but I feel like I'm pretty confident right now that I can take on someone like me, who's only played NBA 2K for years. Because I'm getting better and better at understanding when to attack, when not to attack, and it just takes time especially when you're playing a game where you can't just be tapping buttons. You really have to strategically fight somebody.”
Join Lethal Shooter on his journey to understand fighting games better. Anakin’s Class in Session: TEKKEN Academy continues Thursday, August 20th with a chance to learn more from the master himself in a Twitch session just after the next episode. To catch up with the previous episodes of Class in Session, check out everything covered so far.
